Former ‘Walking Dead’ Producer Blasts AMC

The original show runner for the hit AMC series “The Walking Dead” has painted an unflattering depiction of that network’s executives, accusing them of slashing the budgets for the horror drama just as the show was finding success and of failing to adequately appreciate the often grueling work of its cast and crew.

These accusations, leveled by Frank Darabont, the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and director (“The Shawshank Redemption”), came to light in a deposition he gave in a lawsuit against AMC. Mr. Darabont, who developed “The Walking Dead” from a popular comic book into a television series, was pushed out of his role as its show runner in 2011, during the program’s second season. He is now suing AMC for millions of dollars in profits from the show he says he is owed.

In a deposition given in September, and which was made public this week (and first disclosed by The Hollywood Reporter), Mr. Darabont said that AMC reduced the budget for “The Walking Dead” to $3 million an episode, from $3.4 million an episode. He said the network also kept for itself a tax credit that the series received from the state of Georgia, where it is filmed.

“The cast and crew were earning, busting their butts, leaving it all on the field, to earn,” Mr. Darabont said in the deposition. “The fact that we couldn’t then take that tax credit and put it on the screen or alleviate shooting conditions to any degree, I thought that was adding insult to injury.”

Mr. Darabont also said that AMC executives “would rarely show up on the set” and preferred to spend their time in air-conditioned comfort, while the show’s crew and cast members were working “in 110-degree heat and 100-degree humidity” and picking “ticks off their groin and their ankles at night.”

“They had no empathy, they had no compassion,” Mr. Darabont said of the AMC executives.

Glen Mazzara, who succeeded Mr. Darabont as the “Walking Dead” show runner, only to step down in 2013, also gave a deposition in Mr. Darabont’s lawsuit. In his deposition, Mr. Mazzara said he believed there was “a personal rift” that pitted Mr. Darabont against AMC and Robert Kirkman, a creator of the “Walking Dead” comic book.

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Mr. Mazzara said in his deposition that he believed Mr. Darabont brought a particular “imprint” to the show, “as well as a cinematic approach.”

However, Mr. Mazzara also said in his deposition that if Mr. Darabont had remained the show runner of the series, its second-season premiere episode would have been “a show killer.”

On Wednesday, AMC said in a statement: “Frank Darabont has made it clear that he has strong opinions about AMC and the events that led to his departure from ‘The Walking Dead.’ The reality is that he has been paid millions of dollars under the terms of his contract, which we honored, and we will continue to vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”

Lawyers for Mr. Darabont and for Mr. Mazzara did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.